«You Are the Same Śikhaṇḍinī»: Narrative Constructions of Śikhaṇḍin’s (Gender) Identity in the Mahābhārata
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F23%3A10480505" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/23:10480505 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c166" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c166</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.54103/consonanze.139.c166" target="_blank" >10.54103/consonanze.139.c166</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
«You Are the Same Śikhaṇḍinī»: Narrative Constructions of Śikhaṇḍin’s (Gender) Identity in the Mahābhārata
Original language description
In the Mahābhārata, Bhīṣma creates the narrative of his own death: he connects his not fighting against Śikhaṇḍin, an alleged (former) woman, to his famous vow of celibacy, thus also to his boon of svacchandamaraṇa, and claims that killing a woman would mean killing himself (yadi bhīṣmaḥ striyaṃ hanyād dhanyād ātmānam apy utaǀ 5.193.65). Bhīṣma is the primary source of information about Śikhaṇḍin, as well as the person most affected by it. The problem of Śikhaṇḍin's gender is discussed on several occasions in the Udyogaparvan and the Bhīṣmaparvan, and its importance is limited to Bhīṣma's "death", i.e. falling on the bed of arrows, after which is this Śikhaṇḍin's attribute practically forgotten. The truthfulness of Śikhaṇḍin's (former) womanhood is almost exclusively dependent on Bhīṣma's reliability as a narrator, and his entire character is authoritatively defined by Bhīṣma as well.In this paper, the problem of Śikhaṇḍin's status as a liminal figure, i.e. both as a (former) woman and a character defined by another character, will be evaluated in connection to how Bhīṣma created not only the means but the whole narrative of his death using Śikhaṇḍin's gender. Bhīṣma presents the issue slightly differently to the Kauravas (the emphasis is on Śikhaṇḍin's current womanhood), to the Pāṇḍavas (former womanhood), and to Śikhaṇḍin himself (current womanhood), and also creates presumably deliberate ambiguity between referring to Śikhaṇḍin's birth gender and previous life as Ambā. Other characters merely quote him and are obviously puzzled by the news of Śikhaṇḍin's status as a strī [woman], strīpuṃs [woman-man] or strīpūrvaka [former woman], and simply use the fact without either refusing or confirming it, thus taking part in the narrative presented by Bhīṣma, which authoritatively defined Śikhaṇḍin's character and created a powerful self-myth.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
D - Article in proceedings
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60500 - Other Humanities and the Arts
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Article name in the collection
Liminal Spaces, and Identity Transformations in South Asian Literatures and Arts
ISBN
979-12-5510-050-8
ISSN
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e-ISSN
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Number of pages
19
Pages from-to
153-171
Publisher name
Universita di Milano
Place of publication
Milano
Event location
Milano
Event date
Sep 19, 2019
Type of event by nationality
WRD - Celosvětová akce
UT code for WoS article
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